Advent Begins on December 3rd, This Year!
If you’re looking for a poetic, daily journey through Advent—steeped in both biblical truth and a passionate love for the natural world—I invite you to explore my devotional, Pilgrim God, now available on Amazon!
This daily Advent companion is $2.99 to purchase outright as an ebook, or Kindle Unlimited users can download and read for free.
I hope it blesses your Advent season!
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!
In honor of today’s celebration in the United States, I thought I would share something simple yet (hopefully) profound.
I love the poetry of the late Irish mystic John O’Donohue. He has a lovely book called To Bless the Space Between Us, full of prayers of blessing for all occasions.
Today I would like to share three prayers to bless a meal: two of his, and one of mine. I love these poems, and I think they capture just a hint of what a truly lovely meal can represent: goodness, love, awareness, togetherness, and gratitude.
I hope these prayers bless your day, whether you’re feasting today or no, and blessings be upon you wherever they find you!
Grace Before Meals
by John O’Donohue
As we begin this meal with grace,
Let us be aware of the memory
Carried inside the food before us:
The quiver of the seed
Awakening in the earth,
Unfolding in a trust of roots
And slender stems of growth,
On its voyage toward harvest,
The kiss of rain and surge of sun;
The innocence of animal soul
That never spoke a word,
Nourished by the earth
To become today our food;
The work of all the strangers
Whose hands prepared it,
The privilege of wealth and health
That enables us to feast and celebrate.
Grace After Meals
by John O’Donohue
We end this meal with grace
For the joy and nourishment of food,
The slowed time away from the world
To come into presence with each other
And sense the subtle lives behind our faces,
The different colors of our voices,
The edges of hungers we keep private,
The circle of love that unites us.
We pray the wise spirit who keeps us
To change the structures that make others hunger
And that after such grace we might now go forth
And impart dignity wherever we partake.
A Thanksgiving Circle-Prayer
(original, written in 2022)
This is a caim, or an “encircling” prayer. In the wisdom of Celtic thought, these prayers would be said when walking in a circle around a person or place as a symbol of protection, or surrounding. To symbolize the way God surrounds us with His peace, you could say these prayers while walking, while embracing, while seated around a table at meals, while drawing a circle with your finger on the tabletop or in the air…or even while stirring your morning coffee.
O God of the circular table
where no one is head
and no one is foot:
surround us when we gather
and surround us when we are alone.
keep gratitude within
keep greed without.
keep health within
keep need without.
let us pause to wrap our arms around our blessings,
count them, one by one,
and then send them out
to bless the wanting.
for what we have was never ours
but spills from the round cup
of Your generosity;
O God of the circular table
encircle us,
draw us near to Your Kingdom
of perfect generosity,
where no one is head
and no one is foot.
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Wonderful! Love this line: “let us pause to wrap our arms around our blessings,
count them, one by one,
and then send them out
to bless the wanting.”
Beautiful image of gratitude not only experienced but extended. Thanksgiving expressed in action — a compelling thought!
Ohhh... These are lovely, SE. I especially like your encircling prayer, so beautiful. Thank you for these resources to use any and every day.